The Heirloom
by namby-pamby
Summary: [KHK, OCK] Kurama, Hiei, and a catastrophic, guilty love. YAOI. Complete.
1. The Present

Standard disclaimers apply. YYH, not mine, fic and OCs, mine.

* * *

**The Heirloom**  
_The Present_

He was taking out his car again. His usual companion for six months now waited outside the gate, following the car with a nonchalant stare as it slid out of the garage.

The thick, deep red tapestry veiled her hiding place, and through an inconspicuous slit she spied on her husband - who was now cajoling his male concubine with a special smile that he never sent her way, not even during a special day - with one critical eye. _Not even when it's my birthday, Valentine's Day, our anniversary, Christmas, New Year, whatever,_ she thought wryly. She then noticed that a great, nauseating pang had crept up on her unsuspecting heart, even if this was not the first, second nor third time she snooped around on Shuichi's activities. She resisted staggering forward and through the sliding glass doors, where she could topple into the veranda, roll over to the edge and plummet to death to the lush yet fierce rose bush below. The roses her husband grew had always been too perfect to be of this world. _More than fertilizer,_ she started to muse, _they must have thrived on his aura too._ Once, she plucked a rose from the bush, and a thorn that she adamantly denied to have been under where her finger was pricked it, as if the rose did not like her. The pain was severe, indeed otherworldly, and it lasted for two weeks. _It had been only a day or two since_ that _night, now that I think about it,_ she recalled, and she had come running to him in the hopes that he would press her wound to his lips and heal it sublimely.

_How it filled me with love and warmth..._

_  
"Shu," she whined, bounding over to the sofa where he reclined languidly, arms resting on the length of the backrest. He was watching TV, but he appeared to be swimming in another dimension, for he wore the self-satisfied grin of a happy young man in love._

_  
She snuggled up to him, and he seemed to snap out of his trance, reacting to the sudden movement as though burned. Shuichi schooled his features into his usual polite calm as soon he got his wits back, but she did not miss the revelation. It hurt a little, but she pushed the thought aside anyway._

_  
"Shu, your roses prick as if they're wild beasts."_

_  
He laughed, and the rumble of his contralto in his throat made her want to sigh dreamily. "Can it be that they don't like you, Hibi-san?" He laughed again. He did not press the wound to his lips like he used to, like he was supposed to. He did not put his arms around her like he used to, like he was supposed to. He did not even give out a whit of anything that might mean he loved her, and still did._

His male concubine finally relented and let himself in the car. At the sight of him sitting where only she should be, as Minamino Shuichi's wife, a silent, virulent indignation flared deep within her consciousness, though her face spelled out nothing.

The pair in the car had a little exchange that made Shuichi throw back his head and indulge in a short but hearty laugh, and the black-clad concubine - who looked too aloof for his own good - smile in possibly the most trusting way he could afford. Her heart lurched again. Shuichi fastened his and his concubine's seatbelts, adjusted the mirrors then drove off.

Minamino Hibi did not know how long she blankly stared after the red of the car's rear lights. The image sojourned in her mind as a parasitic illusion long after the car had disappeared from sight, and its glaring rear lights softly washed away by the morning sun. Her six-month-old unborn child jerked in her, and by mother's instinct she blindly palmed her belly to tell her baby she loved her, but she regained no sense of reality whatsoever.

* * *

Ten years ago, he reveled in making those bracelets with Kurama. They were both of impeccable creative ingenuity, and they turned into ornaments whatever dull random thing they picked up along the way. They would string them into bracelets, and whatever they made they gave to each other as friendship symbols. Kurama made a lot - he had nothing to preoccupy himself with while he recuperated in a hospital during the Ankoku Bujutsukai - and he gave them all to him. He only wore one, though that one was the best of the lot. On the other hand, he only made four, gave them all to Kurama, and the red-haired ningen wore all of them at once on his left wrist. Notwithstanding the crude, earthy materials, the bracelets looked fashionable for anyone in Ningenkai, and it made the 26-year-old Kurama look years younger.

But as Kurama changed gears, the bracelets _clanged_ against each other and made such a _din_. It turned out that ten short-lived years of Makai tranquility was long enough an absence from the ruckus of the Ningenkai. He still had headaches whenever Ningenkai became a little too noisy.

He just pointedly made an effort to ignore the raucous sound of the bracelets and Kurama's teasing sidelong grins. "Where are we going?" he asked.

"I really have nowhere in mind, Hiei," Kurama answered, turning right and accelerating madly upon seeing an unobstructed road. "This neighborhood's just getting on my nerves more and more everyday."

"That's not fair," Hiei truthfully commented, and Kurama understood.

"I just... ever since you came back, I couldn't--"

"I'll just leave if I'm causing you to hate--"

"NO!"

Before Kurama agitatedly interrupted him, Hiei gripped the door handle and seriously intended to jump out of the moving car to leave.

"N-no, Hiei. Don't. I love you."

Hiei withdrew his hand and resettled. "Hn."

The silence that welled in the car became palpable, despite the soft, graceful music Kurama had put on.

"Your woman was watching us from behind the glass doors of the veranda," Hiei started.

"I know." Kurama knew and he did not sound like he cared. Hiei shook his head.

"You're _crazy_, Kurama. I mean that with all my being." There was just no other word to describe a married man who openly entertained - and preferred - a male lover's company in front of his pregnant wife.

Kurama frowned and flicked his long hair restlessly. "I can't help it. I've been waiting for you. Now that you're finally here, I can't help it. Hibi-san... she distracted me all these years. It's too bad, but all she is now is a contingency." He clicked his tongue in frustration, as if clueless for a better explanation. "I know it's wrong, but I just _can't_ help it."

"The Youko is restless."

"Perhaps. But it's not why...--" Kurama held Hiei's gaze boldly. "Hiei, I love you more than I love Hibi-san."

Hiei awkwardly returned his eyes to the road, and quietly suffocated with discomfort. He masked it with an imperative, "Kurama, look at where you're going," and a low, inaudible mutter, "Crazy idiot."

* * *

The door bell rang thrice. She awoke with a small jerk, and she dully noted that her eyes felt rather heavy, as if from crying. She clutched her pregnancy and rushed downstairs to answer whoever it was at the door, even if the awful truth that it was not Shuichi ate her alive. How could it be him, when it was only 2 in the afternoon?

It could be anyone. It could be the mailman who dropped by yesterday, the newspaper boy who dropped by earlier, the monthly bills, the police, a burglar or an eviction notice. She would not know; she was not being herself lately. All she was vividly aware of was a pregnant belly, a spinning head, a throbbing heart, a numbing pain and brilliant green eyes that saw right through her...

"Hibi-chan!"

"Mother!"

"Dear, are you all right?! You look sickly and restless..."

"I'm all right, Mother. Don't worry about me. Please, come in." Hibi held out the door, and Shiori acquiesced, politely letting herself in and left her footwear by the doorway.

Hibi lead Shiori to the living room and seated her. Avoiding her wizened eyes, she mumbled an excuse to make tea, but Shiori held on to her arm. She pulled on it, and Hibi was promptly made to sit. Shiori probed her buckling gaze.

"Hibi-chan, it's Shuichi, isn't it?" Shiori whispered. Hibi's shoulders stiffened, but she said nothing.

"Oh, you poor girl!" Shiori sobbed, tears breaking free. She threw her arms around Hibi's shoulders, somewhat forcing her to an embrace. "I'm so sorry!"

It was the grief of a mother who was powerless against her son's happiness.

Shiori shut her eyes against the memory of her son on his wedding day earlier the year, yet it persistently replayed itself in her head. He had been so possessed with uninhibited glee that his breath hitched when he ran to her from the outside, and vaguely she remembered remembering Shuichi from his vivacious youth, whenever he found something fascinating in the backyard. He would always show her what made him happy. Even now, Shiori realized.

_"'Kaasan! 'Kaasan!"_

_  
"Shuichi, what is it? You're as excited as a little kid!"_ Shori remembered laughing.

_"He's here, 'Kaasan! He's here! Hiei's finally returned!"_

_  
"Honto?"_ Shiori remembered being excited as well. _Before submitting to her son's grip, she furtively glanced at the newly-wedded Hibi. She caught the look of hurt that fleetingly streaked across her veiled face, but Shiori decided that as unfair as it was, it could not possibly weigh against her son's happiness. Hibi turned to the other guests, and Shiori let herself be dragged outside, where a long overdue reunion with Hiei took place._

Shiori opened her eyes to the wedding picture by the side table. Hibi looked radiant, whereas Shuichi did too, but with imperceptibly mirthless eyes. Hibi's tearful outburst thundered in her ear, and she suffered helplessly.

* * *

Upon seeing a familiar landmark, Hiei had an idea.

"Kurama, turn left."

"Eh?"

"I want to show you something."

* * *

Hibi eventually calmed down, yet even in her exhaustion, her tears gushed relentlessly. Shiori now cradled her daughter-in-law's head on her lap, and every now and then she would run the length of Hibi's long, damp, unmanaged hair with her fingers. Hibi's tears soaked her dress.

"Why is this happening, Mother? Why..." Hibi whimpered.

Shiori could only wince. She tucked a lock of hair behind Hibi's ear in a reverently silent apology. _Hibi-chan... gomen nasai._

* * *

"Wow, Hiei. Mukuro made this cabin for you?"

"Well, I had been a good boy."

Kurama squinted a glare toward him. Hiei chuckled. "Jealous?"

"I'll bite her head off," Kurama mock-growled a little too viciously to be in jest.

"Yeah, you would. After all, she only ripped the Kokuryuha in half - nothing you can't handle."

"Hiei, this is really nifty," Kurama commented, an obvious change of gambit. Albeit he really looked awed of the place, Hiei was fully aware of the wiles operating in the kitsune's head, but he let it pass. He would never be able to bite off the head of the only person - woman - who obliterated the Makai black flame itself anyway.

"It is, if I say so myself," Hiei agreed.

The cabin was big enough to spoil rotten Hiei's even bigger comfort zone, and ensconced in the forests of the outskirts of the city, Hiei could have all the peace and nature he could ever want. The cabin was meticulously assembled from lumber, and was completely furnished with top-of-the-line Ningenkai implements. A large, elaborate Makai chandelier hung from the center of the ceiling; it was a work of exquisite craftsmanship, and was ornate with bronze and dragon heads. It spilled a warm, effulgent orange glow throughout the cabin, and in effect, everything seemed to be doused in gold.

From where he stood, Kurama noticed a tall drawer to his right. It did not have anything on nor in it, aside from a commonplace glass vase, colored sapphire blue only where a flower design touched it, and it was broken from the middle up. Kurama grew a special rose and put it on the vase, and he beamed. The sight was a stunning subject for a still life photograph.

"Kurama!" Hiei hollered from his bedroom, "don't you want to see the bedroom?"

Kurama gravitated toward the voice automatically. His eyes knowingly glinted, and soon after, a sleazy smile broke out on his face. "Coming, my love," he dared to sing-song.

TBC

* * *

There will be two more chapters, _The Past_, then _The Future_. For now, read and review? Thank you. 


	2. The Past

Standard disclaimers apply.

Notes: It's been too long since the first chapter; if you, the reader, should really care, please re-read the first chapter again. Thank you. Oh, I have changed the rating. An M will probably be too much for this.

Summary: The 'Get Together' until Hiei's return ten years later, as told in Kurama's POV.

* * *

**The Heirloom**  
_The Past_

It happened after the Dark Tournament.

It took a few days to placate the shock, to quell the victorious lightheadedness that infected the gang, and to heal the wounds. However, as Yusuke, Kuwabara-kun and I attended to human responsibilities, the human order of things quickly took over, and Hiei absolutely hated it. Even with his staggering contribution in the Dark Tournament, Hiei and I knew that Koenma could not afford to uplift Hiei's sentence in the Ningenkai, for two reasons: the Dark Tournament was part of it, and letting him roam about the city was already better than detaining him in a Reikai jail cell. But Hiei did not fare well whenever inactivity and boredom was concerned. As much as I loved his company (with nothing to do, Hiei often skulked in the school vicinity, walked with me to home, and stayed the night), Hiei complained about his domestic Ningenkai plight bitterly and loudly, like a petulant, snooty child, that even I could not stand it sometimes.

After a week of exhausting the resources in my room to entertain himself (he had rummaged through my things, had a grand time laughing at my books and photos, and almost incinerated a critical report I slaved over for three nights), he sat on the windowsill, brooding against the chilly night air about how boring Ningenkai was. He recited his disapproval in low, smothered grunts that they sounded like a dismembered chant, and amidst a particularly puzzling homework, I found it maddening, despite knowing of his efforts to keep it to himself.

"Ne, Hiei, can you please shut up?"

He looked taken aback for a second. Then his face hardened. "Oh, you heard me?" he asked, sarcastically.

I gave him a _look_ and pointed to my virtual fox ears. Really. Hiei could be such a tempestuous little shit sometimes.

"_Homework_ is what you get for being a human!" Hiei indignantly huffed, jumping off the window and bad-temperedly diving to the bed as if he owned it. "I'm going to bed!"

Hiei pulled the covers over himself, in an 'angry' sweep that the sheets made a crisp 'whish.' He usually didn't, for the cold never fazed him, and I knew he knew that I knew he only did because of his twisted sense of propriety. I smiled, shaking my head at Hiei's cute wildness, and returned to my work, relieved at the quiet that descended in the surroundings. I told him, as I did every night, "Make yourself comfortable. Good night, Hiei."

I finished up at around 2 in the morning, and when I lifted the covers to put myself to bed, I saw Hiei, wide awake, glowering. It would have been a frightful sight - his bright red eyes gleaming thoughtfully in the shadows of the comforter - if he were not dear to me.

He made room and I settled next to him, on my side, pulling the covers over my head as well. I liked humoring Hiei's unusual games; part of the reason was I knew I was the only one who could get away with it - alive, that is. "Why Hiei, I believe that's how the 'monster under the bed' looks like..." I teased, grinning.

He glared at me. "I can't sleep."

I yawned; I would get up in five hours, after all. "Why?"

His eyes dropped their guard. "I don't know..."

Unabashedly, as sleep claimed me, I invested the last traces of my consciousness into pulling him against me. The last things I felt were his nose bumping ungracefully against my throat, my mouth splitting into a sleazy smile. The last thing I did was kiss him lightly - so lightly that it would seem rather duty-bound to Hiei's critical ego - on his forehead. The last thing I told him was another "Good night, Hiei."

The last thing I heard was Hiei whispering to himself, "You are so cold to me, Kurama."

Although I promptly fell asleep after that, my slumber was altogether short-lived, if not turbulent, and I suspected that it was because of what Hiei last said. I hovered between sleep and awareness; it felt like I had been awake the whole time when my 7 o'clock alarm rang.

As usual, Hiei was nowhere to be found (I could only speculate that he's very particular about being caught defenseless), but for the first time, I was glad he was, because I would not know how to approach someone I'd been 'cold' to. I could never be deliberately cold to him; he's very dear to me, that if he asked, I'd say yes, granted that it would not interfere with my obligations to my human family, of course. If Hiei meant my reluctance to start us off, then I really had been 'cold' to him, but that's also because I would never jeopardize my friendship with him in exchange for something I was not entirely sure of. I could not be so clueless as to not feel that it had been a mutual thing for the longest time, but Hiei and I never expressed our sentiments conventionally. We flirted a lot with each other, but I never brought it up, and neither did he.

Then I blurted the most uncharacteristic thing during breakfast with Mother, it seemed, for when I told her "I might bring _someone_ for dinner one of these days," Mother looked at me as how I imagined she would if she found out about Youko Kurama. I was so thankful that my stepfather had to go to work earlier than usual, and that Shuichi-kun was sleeping in for the day. Before I set out for school Mother gave me her approval, a kiss, and her blessing, for 'whoever it is.' I just had the feeling that Hiei would finally ask, _one of these days_, and maybe I did feel a bit excited to say yes, although the mirror did not betray any of that. It was perfect.

That night, we found ourselves in an arrangement reminiscent of last night's; the only difference was that Hiei sat on the windowsill calmly, and his aura exuded resignation. It was so unsettling that I had to swivel away from my desk, face him and ask, "Is something bothering you, Hiei?"

The fluid way Hiei craned his neck to my direction was haunting. "Was something supposed to bother me?"

_Yes! You think I'm being cold to you just because I won't..._ "I suppose it depends whether you'd actually let yourself be bothered by a something..." I returned. No one played this game better than Hiei and me.

Hiei almost sighed. "I'm just bored. I can't help thinking I'm doomed to this place forever."

I stood and climbed on the bed. I looked up at him. "And I'm just concerned. I'm sorry you're bored, Hiei, and I'm sorry I can't make the Ningenkai more interesting for you. I'm sorry our heist for the three Reikai artifacts ended the way it did."

Hiei looked a bit irritated. "All that's over now, Kurama."

"Yes, so I don't understand why you still keep insisting that you're 'bored.'" I put a hand on his knee to remind him that I did not mean what I said harshly.

Hiei glared at me, accusing. "That's because I _am_. Why are you turning this conversation against me?"

"Because I feel this is about something else, something that you're not telling me and keeping it inside." _Hiei, the least I can do is push you to ask. You can't say I'm still 'cold' to you after this._

"What of it?"

I faltered at that. "I... it's not... healthy?"

Hiei laughed, sardonically and condescendingly. "Kurama, are you hearing yourself speak this nonsense? Do you know what you sound like right now? A preaching hypocrite!"

"And do you know what you sound like night after night since the tournament? You sound like the biggest coward, Hiei, the biggest coward! You can't stop yourself from moaning and complaining about how dull your life is here in Ningenkai, but that's only a cover-up, isn't it? You want to leave so badly because you're avoiding something else! Why are you avoiding _me_?!"

I felt Hiei's heart stop beating for a moment as I saw his eyes dilate - in sheer horror. I was sorry, but I couldn't help taking it further. There was no turning back. A heavy, nervous silence followed.

"I..." Hiei started, but he couldn't follow anything up, so he prepared to take off. Having anticipated it, I latched my hand onto his, making our fingers lace through each other's. I gave him a rueful smile and a decisive tug. "The room's become quite cramped, ne Hiei? Let's get some fresh air in the garden."

Before he dumbly nodded, Hiei gawked at me for the longest time. We jumped down to Mother's garden, stealthily, and I lead him to the area with the densest foliage - behind the big sakura tree. _How romantic,_ I scoffed to myself, and saw the lights in Mother and Stepfather's room turn off.

I sat on the grass, and pulled him down with me. I stared at him and smiled, in the most assuring way I could manage. While Hiei glared at me with all his might, I could feel him cowering inside.

I let the night air cool his head before I spoke. "Now, there's something you want to tell me, yes?"

Hiei struggled to free his fingers, but I knew it was just for show. Despite his hand being smaller, he was undeniably the stronger of us, and if he really wanted to, he could bolt from sight right then and there. I still held on to him, with all the strength of my left hand, because I knew that he would interpret something less than that as insincerity.

Eventually he realized that resistance was futile, so he resigned. With a deep breath he drawled, almost agonizingly, "I _want_ you, Kurama."

"I think you mean 'love,' Hiei," I told him in jest; he, of all people, should know that it was useless to outfox a fox. I knew he was proud and couldn't bear the word and it just amused me to no ends. Hiei buckled and glared ferociously at me.

"No, I...--!!!"

"I love you too, Hiei."

And to suspend any more needless nonsense from his potty and volatile little mouth, I kissed it. Lightly.

Then I beamed at him.

Still too dumbfounded to do anything on his own, Hiei just sat there motionless like a rock, skittish like a butterfly, and nervous like a first-timer. I was a first-timer too, but unlike Hiei I knew how to assert my rights. I pulled him close and started to undress him. As I was unwinding his scarf I felt his qualms ebb away. It was so ironic.

His scarf, cloak and boots had gone and all, and I had already set aside his katana. When I moved to unbuckle his belts he told me, "You can't do that."

I looked at him, confused. "Huh? Why not?"

"You're a minor." Hiei replied, matter-of-factly, and the next thing I recognized was his hand firmly clamped on my guffawing mouth, and he himself trying to suppress his own chuckles. "I'm serious, Kurama!"

"Then I'll turn into Youko."

"You can't do that too."

"Why not!"

"That's pedophilia. I _am_ half Youko Kurama's age, after all," Hiei smarted off smugly.

My stomach hurt from laughing. "I can't believe you, Hiei!"

"This is what you get for turning the conversation against me earlier."

I pounced on him, closing in on his face - until our noses bumped at each other - and pinning my whole weight on him. "But it did produce some interesting results, ne?"

"Sure, but you still can't do that."

"And why is that this time?"

In a blink of an eye, Hiei had our positions reversed, and he was looking down at me lecherously with a very handsome smirk. He bared his teeth, and their whiteness glinted seductively in the deep night. "You're bottom."

As though to silence the imminent protests, he bent down and kissed me. Long, deeply and confidently. My heart fluttered. Of course, I did not have any 'imminent protests' in the first place, but I had no objections to what he did, either. I smiled against his kiss.

When he pulled back he rested his head under my chin, refusing to meet my eyes. _Well, that's all right,_ I thought, _We have time to learn about this_. Then I found his spiky hair surprisingly soft.

The wind blew, the sakura petals fell, and I stroked the skin of Hiei's back to warm it. "Isn't this romantic, Hiei?" I whispered.

"Whatever you say."

I couldn't help smile. "Still think you're 'doomed to this place forever'?"

"Perhaps. But at least it won't be that boring anymore."

Then he fell asleep, on top of me, on the grass, and the work I left unfinished mattered little to me as I succumbed to sleep as well and cradled him a bit closer.

The next morning Hiei and I went in through the front door. Mother was thoroughly baffled. "Shuichi! And Hiei-kun?! What... Why, how... Weren't you upstairs...?"

"It's too early for dinner, Okaasan, but... We're home." I smiled, perhaps a tad too big for my face, and Mother understood. Tears welled up in her eyes as she put her arms around my shoulders and drew me in for a motherly hug.

"Oh, Shuichi! I'm so happy for you! I can't imagine anybody more perfect!"

"Arigato, Okaasan."

Mother then shook both of Hiei's hands. "Welcome to the family, Hiei-kun!" She exclaimed, hugging him as well. Hiei went still and taut at the contact and it was funny as much as it was adorable.

"A-arigato... Sh-shiori-s-san," he could only stutter.

----------

The days quickly passed. An enigmatic character, Sensui, wanted to destroy the world, and we thwarted his demented plans successfully, albeit narrowly. But it was not just that: the more the Ningenkai and the Makai intersected, the more jittery our relationship became - after all, demons and humans could never coexist, and Hiei and I were too aware of that. We knew that our days were numbered when we started being too frequently cross with each other. After Sensui's defeat, Hiei regained consciousness in the Ningenkai. He apparently hated Ningenkai more than he let on.

_"Why didn't you just dump me there, Kurama?! I don't need to be trapped in the Ningenkai again!"_

"I'm sorry, Hiei, but you had to be taken care of. We couldn't just 'dump' you there; you were unconscious and unfit to fight. What if demons devour you while you were out of it?"

"Didn't it occur to you that I'm standing here in front of you because I've survived far worse than that? To start coddling me now is seriously ridiculous!"

"You're right. It's ridiculous to care for you and I couldn't be more wrong for it. I'm sorry for trying to push what we have beyond the barriers between our worlds. I assure you, I learn well from my mistakes."

With that I turned my back on him, and he fled out the window. I didn't see him for a couple of weeks, until the day he sent me a signal of his whereabouts. I masked my presence and sneaked up on him. He sat under a tree and was leaning on it; he held the video tape of Chapter Black and was looking intently at it. When he spoke to recognize me, I then knew that what we had entirely depended on a precarious ultimatum - which we were likely to fail to meet.

_"I've missed you, Hiei."_

"Hn."

"If you really want to go back to Makai, why don't you strike a deal with me? I want to return the tape to Reikai. Give it to me and I'll try to bribe Koenma with it."

He replied by slicing the tape in pieces. I didn't know what he meant by doing that, but the ultimatum remained unsatisfied until the Makai Tournament came.

He entrusted Yukina-san to me. I would've done the favor for him, even if he did not ask it of me. There was one thing in his request I refused to see to, however - to lie to Yukina-san about his death. I returned his tear gem to him in resignation, for I didn't dare imagine we would be meeting again. He took it, and, to my surprise, made a very bold promise, which sounded like crap to me at that time.

_"If I return to you in the Ningenkai, it will be to share and see through the remaining years of Shuichi's life with you."_

I wanted to slap him. _How dare he?!_ Instead I gave him a tight nod and went on my way; I resisted looking back. Of course I didn't count on it - not with everything that was said and done - yet in the abyss of my heart I held him on it. It had been seven years before I took another lover, and ten years before I married.

----------

Ten years later, on the very day of my marriage to Hibi-san, he did return. I impregnated my wife that night, out of duty, but I slept with Hiei the nights that followed.

Nine months later, Hibi-san gave birth to our daughter, and despite Hiei's insistence, I refused to be present by my wife's side. Hiei punched me in the face, took my keys, locked me up in my apartment and left. Later that day, my mother called to say that she had named the child _Makoto_.

Makoto. Little faithful. Hiei returned that night, with take-out, and I forced him to make love with me. He did oblige, but at the height of my desire for him he just looked at me with level red eyes, burning with contempt and resentment. I broke down, and if he had not taken me in his arms and comforted me, I didn't know what I could have done to myself.

_"I shouldn't have returned."_

"Please don't say that, Hiei. I love you."

"Don't you love your wife?"

"No."

"Then why did you marry her?"

"There was nothing to divert my feelings for you after the Makai Tournament! There's nothing more important to me than my family, but there was nothing for the longest time! It made me so lonely, then I met Hibi-san. Hiei, I thought she was you!"

TBC

* * *

Yes, Kurama is crazy. And if anyone should notice, yes, I did work my way around the loopholes of YYH episodes. Timelines mentioned are the post-Dark Tournament, post-Sensui, post-Makai Tournament. Particular episodes mentioned are 94 and 112. Lastly, yes, the events that follow the 'get-together' are told merely in passing. 


	3. The Future, Part 1

Standard disclaimers apply.

Summary: Fast forward to 18 years later from _The Present_. Character death.

* * *

**The Heirloom**  
_The Future, Part 1_

The first thing Minamino Makoto did upon turning legal was drop her father's name and take on her mother's. On the very day, she awoke at 4 in the morning, and Shiori knew better than to dissuade her granddaughter when the latter wore her green-eyed look of fierce determination, one Shiori believed Makoto inherited from her father. Makoto's eyes were unmistakably Shuichi's, but they were beautiful smoldering embers whose fires wouldn't go out for the longest time. Shiori accompanied and assisted her through the rigorous court formalities and incorrigible red tape; thus Makoto legally became Sakurai Makoto five clandestine days later.

Hibi knew nothing about it, of course. Makoto may have looked as plain as she did, except for those prominent green eyes, but all along she had the personality of the father she detested with all her heart. Hibi puttered about Shuichi's roses for the five days she was left alone at home, completely oblivious to her daughter's ballistic activities. For the first time in 18 years, Hibi realized that no amount of fertilizer nor care could make the roses as alive as how they had been under Shuichi's infuriatingly capable, magical hands.

Shiori dropped Makoto home at 11 PM on the fifth day, still scandalized and speechless at the younger woman's audacity to blissfully intoxicate herself before her very eyes, consecrating each shot with "Good riddance, Minamino Shuichi!" However, Makoto immediately sobered upon finding Hibi prone on the living room floor, unconscious, clutching at her heart. Both rushed to the fallen woman, and behind them, the frantic househelper made the necessary calls.

"The ambulance should be here at any second now." the househelper reported, a little shaky from anxiety. "Gomen nasai, Shiori-sama, Makoto-chan. I didn't think such a thing could happen, so I turned in for the day."

Shiori smiled at her ruefully in gratitude and pardon. She bit her lip. "Ano, Shiori-sama... should I call Shuichi-san as well?"

Makoto flashed livid eyes at the two women and snarled in legendary fury, "What for?!" Her tears flooded her face.

"Go," Shiori told the househelper, ignoring Makoto. "Call Shuichi." 

----------

"Shiori-sama, I don't think Shuichi-san is at his apartment right now. No one is answering." At the househelper's statement Makoto saw her grandmother's eyes turn thoughtful for a split second. She didn't like it.

"What a despicable, selfish, philandering bastard!" Makoto roared, balling her fists. Her tears flooded her face again, but she tried her best to avoid letting them fall on her mother's face which was just underneath hers.

Ignoring Makoto again, as she had done in similar circumstances all those years, Shiori requested of the househelper, "Try his _other_ number. It's in the directory, under Hiei-kun's name."

"Hai," the househelper bowed and complied.

_Hiei. Hiei! Hiei!!!_ It was the first time Makoto heard her father's concubine's name. _Grandmother is doing this deliberately. WHY?!_ Makoto gently extricated Hibi's head from her lap and sped up to her room, her footfalls thundering in blind rage. She shut the door so hard the doorframe could have collapsed.

After the call was made the ambulance arrived.

----------

Right after dinner, Kurama hefted on Hiei's dining table the paperwork he had to take home to finish and present the next day. Sympathetic, Hiei sat next to him as he worked diligently, turned on the TV to pro-wrestling, muted it and absently watched, though he mentally flamed the sport as a shoddy excuse for entertainment. They stayed like that for hours. Then Kurama started to digress, kissing and flirting with Hiei after every three minutes in agitation. Moments later a call came in.

Hiei picked up. "Hai."

"Hiei-kun," Shiori greeted with strained affection, "is Shuichi there?"

Hiei glanced at Kurama. The latter inexplicably looked discombobulated as he met his eyes. "He is, Shiori-san. Just a second, please."

Kurama took the offered phone warily. "Hello, Mother. How are you--"

"Come to the city general hospital, quick. Hibi-chan collapsed. The ambulance will be taking her there shortly," Shiori said, then hung up immediately.

Kurama's thoughts flatlined. He had never heard Shiori speak with him in such cold, fluid tones. She specifically sounded like she was fed up with something about him and was close to not giving a damn anymore.

Hiei silently panicked when he saw Kurama blankly stare at the phone he precariously held. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"Hiei..." Kurama turned to him with hurt, shocked, desperate, vulnerable eyes. "Mother hung up on me," he said, stifling an urge to sob.

"Baka," Hiei chided gently, standing to embrace the redhead. "Not that. Why did she hang up on you?"

"She said Hibi-san's been rushed to the hospital..."

They both stiffened as the revelation sunk in. Kurama whispered sharply, "Oh no, Hibi-san!"

Hiei, on the other hand, felt a liberating, vague, if not twisted, sense of triumphant justice. He knew a greater part of Kurama's sudden anguish was from Shiori's earlier rejection and not from Hibi's casualty. Likewise, a greater part of Hiei rejoiced in that, convinced that Kurama deserved it for being irrational, selfish, foolish and enslaved by the thing he reminded him of every night: "love."

But when he regained his senses and instead felt his troubled partner slinking into his arms and hungrily thrived on whatever he found there, Hiei realized that this was his sin as well. _I love you._ The different ways of how Kurama professed of his love for 18 years echoed in his mind. He kissed the beloved, feverish forehead and helped Kurama up - with a seemingly newfound courage. He told him, "Come, we need to hurry. I'll drive you there."

----------

"Please stop crying, Makoto-chan," Shiori begged of her granddaughter when the tears would not stop flooding from her angrily set eyes. "Everything will be all right. Your mother's a strong woman. She'll wake up soon, you'll see..."

Beside her, Makoto would not listen. She gripped at her jeans so hard that she trembled.

Then Kurama burst into the room, abjectly holding Hiei's hand as though it was a possession he could not go without. Shiori stood upon seeing him.

Makoto instantly seized crying. She found herself unable to summon the age-worn animosity that she always had for her despicable, selfish, philandering father; the one whom she now looked in the eye, the one who was so beautiful he took her breath away. For one unforgivable second Makoto thought that he was so beautiful that he had the birth right to philander. Inadvertently, her eyes fell on Hiei, whose handsome yet austere features looked so humble as he fervently tried to make himself invisible from the unhappy gathering that was worsened by his attendace. Makoto remembered her anger.

Kurama, taking note of his hostile daughter's presence, closed in on Shiori slowly, carefully. "Mother," he started, releasing Hiei's hand in an attempt to embrace her, when the next thing he became aware of was Makoto's face and Makoto's hand slapping him across the face without reservations, and his face burning from the impact. It happened so fast that Hiei was the only one who saw it unraveling; he did nothing to stop the blow, however.

Shiori was scandalized. "Makoto!" she sternly called. The girl looked back at her defiantly.

"This is all HIS fault, Grandmother!" Makoto bellowed. She raised another hand to deliver another slap, but Shiori intercepted it, parrying it to the side vehemently in reproach. Kurama put a hand on Shiori's arm, gently.

"It's okay, Mother," he sighed resignedly. He turned to his daughter. "Please hit me all you want, Makoto-chan, even if it won't erase my shortcomings at all."

Even as he prostrated himself before Makoto's mercy, Kurama was ruthless and haughty at his next words that Hiei could have sworn the assertive Youko stealthily took over. "The only regret I have is you and your mother suffering the consequences of the love I have for Hiei. But I'm not sorry for anything."

Hiei turned his head away. Shiori wept, torn. Kurama knew the two persons he loved were blaming him, but he was impervious to anything that could alter his resolve. He closed his eyes in submission. Makoto slapped him on the other cheek with all her might before she stormed out of the hospital room. Her sobs billowed hauntingly in the floor corridor.

After the sting of Makoto's attack had faded, Kurama opened his eyes to Hiei's absence. He did not even feel him leaving the room; it was as if Hiei did not want him to know. Worse, Shiori would not talk to him.

Kurama walked to the bed where Hibi laid. He held her hand, and he thought that her lifeless touch was a poor remedy to his desolation and a poor surrogate to the touch he was yearning for at the moment. Then her hand twitched; with wide eyes he met Hibi's, swollen with fresh tears and filled with love for him. She had witnessed everything that transpired.

_I love you, Shu! I love you, I love you!_ she was trying to say frantically, yet her tongue was strangely arrested that all that came out were garbled, incoherent mumbles. Hibi cried harder once she realized she was unable to render intelligible the feelings she desperately wanted to let her estranged husband know.

"Hibi-chan, Hibi-chan!" Shiori called out to her. "Hang in there!"

Outside, Kurama searched urgently for a doctor. _Hiei... you secretly hated me all these years, didn't you?_

---------

At the hospital rooftop, as the cool midnight air caressed his face, Hiei dispassionately stared at the gold matrimonial ring on his hand. He loved Kurama without a doubt - dearly, deeply; he was just tired of feeling trapped in this illicit - not to mention, illegitimate - romance. He didn't want to give up his lover, but neither could he stand any longer the reality that other people were paying the price in their ungrateful behalf.

_We may never be legally married while we're here in the Ningenkai,_ he remembered Kurama saying that night of their bonding, _but know that I love you most. And this ring_ - Kurama kissed the ring that he put on Hiei's finger reverently - _more than represents all that amazing magic._

You're such a cornball.

I enjoy making you uncomfortable, beloved.

Hn.

I love you, Hiei.

Hiei wanted to weep from the memory that would not stop washing over him; it suffocated the universe around him, and it sent him plummeting down to the heart of confusion. That night, Kurama looked, smiled, made love, loved only him, but Kurama was never really only his. He did not know what to do anymore.

_I do too. Kurama._

TBC

* * *

Since this chapter is the bulk of the story, it's inevitably kinda long, so I had to chop it into two. Oh well oh well.

I have no idea about the details of legally changing one's name in Japan, but since I trust that legal transactions there are dealt with faster than ahem somewhere else I know ahem my country haha, I thought five days was a reasonable time give. Do tell if my assumptions are so wrong I ought to change that part. Thank you. 


	4. The Future, Part 2

Standard disclaimers apply.

Notes: 28 years after the series. Last part. Character death.

Thank you to those who stopped to look; moreso to those who really read after that, and all the more to those who dropped a message or two. As cheesy parting words I'll let you all in on a little secret: I take so long to update but I only write for one day. It's despicable how inspiration comes so infrequently to me.

* * *

**The Heirloom**  
_The Future, Part 2_

_I love you, I love you!!!_

The joint efforts of Shiori and Makoto were easily thwarted. Sweating profusely, Hibi, though frail and entrenched in various life-maintaining machines, struggled as savagely as a beast against their hold, wailing, like a banshee, a message that only poured out as a barrage of misshapen phonetics. Later, she gargled her undecipherable speech with the froth that accumulated in her mouth. Mother-in-law and daughter, at a loss for a better action, only weeped helplessly as they gave all their might to pin her down.

It was only when Shuichi returned with a doctor and two nurses that Hibi was propitiated. As the doctor tranquilized her, she only looked at him with tearful, bloodshot eyes of a hysterical, fanatic love; they were relentless until they closed as the drug easily worked on her. Shuichi, well-knowing of his unworthiness of such reverence, and that he could not possibly soften his heart toward her just because of the recent dismal events, received it merely at the corner of his eyes. In his heart, he screamed for Hiei to come and save him.

When all fell quiet, and Hibi was rendered in a shallow but peaceful sleep, the doctor sat the concerned family members to inform them of his diagnosis of the patient. He made a long preface speech, and Kurama, restless at the prolonged delay and at Hiei's absence, excused himself out of the room just before the doctor announced that Hibi was afflicted with a bizaare neurological illness called by a really long name.

"She's paralyzed for life, Minamino-san."

---------

"There you are," Kurama said, putting a hand on Hiei's shoulder. "I thought I'd find you here." Mimicking the latter, he leaned himself on the railing.

Hiei scanned Kurama's features. His hair was messy and matted to his temples; his clothes were slightly rumpled, his smile was tired but welcome, his heartbeat was decelerating from top speed. Nonetheless, he looked unaffected. The green eyes shone brightly at him as Kurama regarded him. At that, Hiei sniffed in secret contempt and returned his attention to the overlook of the city. "And you're right, as always."

Kurama frowned. "Is something the matter?"

_Is this fool really asking that?_ "Hn."

Kurama deliberately changed topic. "Hiei, we can go home now. I'm sorry you got held up this long. Yours or mine? It would hardly matter because we're beat!" He chuckled in good humor, but it reverberated in anxiety instead as Hiei neither delivered a word nor action for a reply.

Silence would have stretched eternally, had Hiei not sharply inhaled, as though a preparation for a perilous confrontation. Upon sensing this, Kurama started in a frightened panic, rather childish.

"'Not sorry for anything,' huh?" Hiei whispered.

Kurama felt like crying; he certainly did not need this now, especially from the one he cared for most in the world. "None at all. Please, Hiei, let's just go home."

Hiei's inflection rose in a conflation of condescension and pent-up insecurity. "_Home_. Where's that? My cabin? Your apartment?"

Retaliating in the same force, Kurama exclaimed, "Anywhere! If we have you and me, I don't care where it is! Let's just go home!"

"No, Kurama. The only place in this world that you haven't gone to is your _real_ home. With your wife. With your child." Hiei brought his sleeve to his face and wiped vigorously. "So go home, Kurama. GO HOME!"

"Hiei!" Kurama shouted as he walked away. "Hiei!!!"

Hiei halted, not looking back. "Did you want me to drive you there?"

"NO! I want you to quit being stupid, and I want us to GO HOME!"

Hiei turned to him, livid. "YOU stop being stupid!"

"Hiei!!!"

"On second thought, it would leave bad impressions on anyone if I took you home. Get a cab, or walk. You know where it is anyway."

Stuffing his hands in his pockets, Hiei advanced to the door, shutting it behind him upon his exit. Kurama, devastated, was paralyzed in place; he wanted to cry harder, and his heart ached without reprise. He was instead vexed to realize that his eyes would not produce the abundance of tears he desperately preferred.

---------

_Three armed men deemed it okay to break in Kurama's apartment after three days of observation since they noted his inactivity. They took their time in looting every nook and cranny of his residence because Kurama, slumped on his dining table and with reeking breath from nothing but beer for days, evinced no sign of attention nor care, let alone resistance._

But when one of them tried to pry off his gold matrimonial ring, vines sprouted from the floor and instantly strangled the culprit to death; the other two, bewildered, aimed their guns at him.

"What are these plants?! What kind of a freak are you?!" they called.

Kurama only raised his eyes at them and in them they saw the essence of a much more cold-blooded murderer than they. The two remaining thieves panicked, and one of them fired at his heart. They escaped without a trace.

Seven days later of their divorce, Hiei was packing and taking down things for the Makai when Shiori phoned him about Shuichi's - Kurama's - death.

---------

Kurama was given a Christian funeral service(1).

"Two lives, two bullets. Fate must be laughing at you now, Kurama. You thought you got away with cheating him about your illicit Ningenkai refuge," Hiei murmured, nostalgic, tracing the polished ebony coffin with his fingers. It was closed; besides the fact that Kurama's appearance - slovenly, drunken, sneering - did not improve with much grooming, his death was graceless, that he could not be allowed for viewing, despite the overwhelming throng of visitors.

Looking up at the huge crucifix that loomed over the casket, Hiei said to the being it represented, "Kurama told me about you. Hn. I doubt you'll be expecting him there."

Behind him, a haggard-looking Shiori interrupted his reverie. She spoke with genuine maternal tenderness that she always made him feel as his, even in the absence of their common link with Kurama. "Hiei-kun... what will you do now?"

He seated her on a foremost pew, took her hand and looked at her solemnly. Hesitantly, he said, "Shiori-san... I must confess that I... I think I'm partly responsible for what happened to... Shuichi."

Hiei was surprised that Shiori was not. Her silence encouraged him to elaborate. "That night at the hospital... We fought. We didn't see each other since."

"You broke up with him?" Shiori conjectured aptly, but humbly; Hiei had long known her to be anything but offensive, at whatever circumstances. He smiled a little and squeezed her hand(2).

"Yes," he sadly admitted.

"And you think you're the reason why he didn't fight back his attackers?"

"...Yes. I'm sorry, Shiori-san." Hiei bent his head low to show her that he would bravely take whatever blow she needed to extract on him as retribution. Instead, he felt himself slowly being drawn into a soft embrace; it was the mother of the beloved embrace that he was direly mssing now. Hiei could not help break into tears.

"Oh, Hiei-kun..." Shiori started, running her gentle touch on his broad, strong shoulders, mother-like. "That may be so, but no one wanted this to happen."

"Shiori-san... I... after seeing what happened to Hibi-san, I... drove him away. Harshly... But I..."

"I know, Hiei-kun. But about that... I wouldn't know what to say without being ambiguous - or wrong, at the most. You two had my blessing all along, yet I never intended for things to end this way--..." Shiori's eyes brimmed with tears.

"But, what about Hibi-san--?!"

"Shuichi loved you more than she loved Hibi-chan, Hiei-kun."

Hiei sniffled, and smiled amidst his tears. _Hiei, I love you more than I love Hibi-san._ "He said that too, dumb bastard."

"I thought that was all there is to it. But even in this tragedy, Hiei-kun, when I ought to regret that seeming mistake..." Shiori's tears streamed down her face freely. "I dont. I don't regret anything at all." She patted his cheek.

_None at all._ "Shiori-san... He swore to that too. To the very end."

"Yes, Shuichi did, didn't he?" Shiori said, and Hiei nodded, as they held hands. Together they wept silently.

----------

_...your eyes, your smile, your hair, your mouth, your skin, your hands, your neck, your feet, your hair, your voice, your smell, your body language, your limited vocabulary, your facial expressions, your Jagan, your intelligence, your attitude, your principles, your sarcasm, your biting remarks, your...--_

Will you ever stop? You just wore me out; I want to sleep.

Yes! The last one is... your fingertips.

My fingertips? Kurama, they're rougher than the husk of the sturdiest Makai tree.

You exaggerate! Say whatever you want, I love them.

You can have them, if you want. Just... go to sleep already. You have work four hours later.

Because in their roughness is so much experience and power in warfare, but when you trace me so intimately with them, my fragility is caressed, never threatened. That in my fragility, you fear to do me damage. You fear me.

Kurama... Hn. I'm not one of your school reports.

Well, we all need that fear of the other. Otherwise, we'll lose ourselves.

Hn.

Besides, I find your vested vow of powerlessness over me very sexy because I can make you bend over _any time._

Kurama!

Good night, Hiei.

Hn.

I love you.

----------

Relieved, Shiori and Hiei soon got to talking about more casual matters - amusing memories of Shuichi and Kurama, secrets concerning the other that Shuichi and Kurama made them swore not to tell, what their future plans were - that the small laughter they allowed themselves to share(2) quickly became a scandal to the other wake-goers. Shiori briefly parted with her son-in-law to attend to the latter.

Left alone, Hiei immediately developed a naivete for his alien surroundings. Kurama almost drowned in the profusion of flowers and gifts sent by visitors; in fact, the small chapel itself seemed to be gasping for air from the claustrophobia that a remarkable number of friends and acquaintances inevitably caused. _However,_ Hiei thought, _if I were to identify those who really knew him, I'd be left with myself, Shiori-san, Yusuke, Kuwabara, Botan, Koenma... and Hibi-san._

Then, on the right column of pews, also on the foremost, was Makoto, letting her tears flood her face with abandon. Hiei dared to approach her and take the vacant seat on her left, convinced that even with the loathing she held toward her father, she would not be so unscrupulous as to commit an act of violence in this situation. She visibly stiffened as she recognized him from the corner of her eyes; she inched away from him, but she let him be for the longest time, even to the spectacle of her grieving over her wretched father.

Hiei observed her before he spoke. Drenched in tears, her face consisted of a melancholy pallor, and that it was turned sallow by an extended period of mourning that alternated between hatred and a lost love that was long coveted. Her green eyes dimmed, the skin under them puffed from excessive crying, and though the hard lines of anger were now blurred, an imperial frown shaped her mouth forever that Hiei thought it pitiful that he could not imagine her free from the infernal sadness. "Why are you crying?" He softly asked.

The answer was concise. "Because of my mother, because of the pain she has to bear upon herself just because this bastard died, because I wanted a father but then this bastard never really loved me. Because I'm really glad that he's finally going to hell, that son of a-- Good riddance, Minamino Shuichi!"

"...I'm sorry, Makoto."

"Don't be sorry, I don't understand you! Everyone else here wanted the love he gave only to you, and you're _sorry_?!"

"You're right, it's not the right thing to say. I am, after all, not sorry for anything."

"He said that too. So you're that heartless? You dare say you're not sorry for anything to the one who has suffered most from your irresponsible actions?"

"We've been irresponsible, yes. Evil, even. But I'm not sorry for anything. I don't have anything to justify it with but I shall take it to my grave as well."

"Get lost. I know what you mean. I understand everything. Leave me alone."

Hiei did as she wished, possibly forever. He was not present at the burial, and Shiori was nonchalant of it, as if she already knew beforehand. But when Makoto looked at the space he vacated she saw a red rose(3), exquisite in its fullness, perfect as though artificial. Out of curiosity, she kept it, and promptly forgot.

Days, weeks and months after Kurama was permanently put to rest under the earth, she would remember her anger and would trample on the flower viciously. It withered against her onslaught, and she would tower over its crushed remains, smug, content at the temporary revenge. However, it would always bloom to be more beautiful than ever the next day, right on the asphalt where she intended its destruction. On the nth day of this frustration, she broke down, distraught that she could not rid herself of his hauntingly beautiful memory.

In acknowledgment of her defeat, she kept the everlasting rose, and always remembered.

END

* * *

A lot of post-scripts!  
1. In Kurama's Eizou Hakusho video, there was a picture of him with his back against a Christian church (or something). Christianity isn't prevalent in Japan, I know, but I like toying with the idea.  
2. Hiei, holding and squeezing someone's hand and _laughing_ with that person? Priceless. :))  
3. This rose first made its appearance in _The Present_, though not very conspicuous. This is actually the prompt for the whole fic.  
4. _Hibi_ in Japanese is 'crack (ie crack in the wall)' and/or 'day.' _Makoto,_ on the other hand, is 'faithful (in _The Past_: "Makoto. Little faithful.").' Make of that what you may. 

Now a few words on this fanfic and fanfiction-writing in general:  
I feel I've done Hiei and Kurama a great deal of injustice by elevating the OCs as their equals in this fic. In short I deviated from the canon and went a bit too far. However, imho, fanfiction _is_ deviating from the and going too far with it. I don't think anyone can contest that. But oh well.

Thank you for reading. 


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